Chinese rider gets two-year ban for ‘violent incident’

A Chinese rider kicked out of the Tour of Hainan for attacking Swiss national team staff has been banned from professional cycling for two years, Chinese cycling chiefs said.

Wang Xin, Keyi Look Cycling Team and three of their staff were punished for what the Chinese Cycling Association called a “violent incident.”

Race organizers had already said that Wang and Keyi Look would never be allowed back, and now the association has taken further action following the extraordinary scenes that saw Wang at one point grab a bicycle pump as a weapon.

Video posted online shows a rider, purportedly Wang, beating one Swiss team staff member to the ground and kicking him in the head, before attacking a second one, following the tour’s seventh stage on Friday last week.

Wang, who later apologized on social media, was enraged after accusing the Swiss team’s car of knocking him off his bike during the stage between the cities of Sanya and Wuzhishan, a claim that was denied by Swiss team manager Danilo Hondo.

In a statement, the association said that Wang and the Swiss car had bumped one another, causing him to fall.

However, it said that was no excuse for Wang’s reaction and excluded him from all cycling for six months, with a two-year ban from professional cycling.

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